


whatever you make it to be

by theafterimages



Series: frat au [21]
Category: GOT7
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fraternity, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dirty Talk, Frottage, M/M, Mind Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-23
Updated: 2016-09-23
Packaged: 2018-08-16 19:32:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8114785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theafterimages/pseuds/theafterimages
Summary: “What do you mean, ‘test each other’?”Alternately: what happens during spring break… (Frat AU)





	

**Author's Note:**

> This installment has actually been more or less ready to go for several months, I just needed to finish the other one first. ;; Thank you to everyone that helped me with it!
> 
> This is set during March 2013, two weeks after [just set them up](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8009233). Frat AU master lists: [by storyline](http://eveninadream.livejournal.com/17207.html) and [by chronology](http://eveninadream.livejournal.com/9888.html).

  
The Cartwright Greek gossip system is terrifyingly efficient even during spring break, so it wasn’t long before Jaebum had heard that Jinyoung had twisted his ankle on the beach that morning, severely enough that he might not be able to walk on it for the next few days. 

For the record, Jaebum giving up his plans to party on the beach with the rest of Kappa Tau that night so that he can hang out with Jinyoung instead doesn't mean Jinyoung has Jaebum wrapped around his finger, no matter what some (or, well, all) of his fraternity brothers think. The fact that Jinyoung was willing to wheedle until Jaebum agreed to come over clearly means that Jaebum is the one winning their contest of wills. He could have tried to make Jaebum jealous by asking someone else, but instead he had asked Jaebum directly. Jaebum's long since decided that giving Jinyoung positive reinforcement when he asks for things outright is good for both of them. He doesn’t want Jinyoung to wear himself out with the endless manipulation. 

Jaebum scrubs a hand over his face. Sometimes he still can't believe that this game is happening at all, much less that he's held out for this long; that it's been seven months and they have yet to go any further than some incredibly charged touches. 

It’s not that Jaebum doesn’t want to. He’s wanted to fuck Jinyoung, so much that it verges on desperation, pretty much since the day they met. At first what had stopped him was pride—he hadn’t wanted Jinyoung to think he’s just one more KT eager to worship at the altar of the guy with the hottest ass at Cartwright. Now it’s—well, still pride; he hasn’t held out for seven months only to be the first to give in, after all. But even more than that. He’s not done with this, with Jinyoung, yet, and he doesn’t want Jinyoung to decide he’s done with Jaebum, either.

To Jaebum's complete lack of surprise, the Omega Chi beach house is nearly as ostentatious as their frat house. He actually gets lost trying to find Jinyoung’s room—in his defense, he is pretty distracted by the busts of all the fraternity presidents that are lined up along the upstairs hallway—and has to get another of the Omega Chis to show him the way. 

When he finally reaches the right door, Jaebum knocks, intending to let himself in once Jinyoung says it's clear. Instead Jinyoung opens it himself, leaning on a crutch, his bandage-swaddled right foot extended in the air.

Jinyoung’s gaze darts down to Jaebum’s computer, and he looks genuinely disappointed. Just for a second, until his expression clears and he pouts dramatically instead, but Jaebum still catches it. “I’m not enough for you anymore?”

“What are you doing walking around?” Jaebum returns.

“It’s twisted, not broken,” Jinyoung protests, but when Jaebum slings his free arm around Jinyoung’s waist Jinyoung leans his weight against him. 

“Do you want to carry me to bed?” Jinyoung coos. 

“Do you need me to?”

Jinyoung smiles, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepening. "I just don't want you to worry. I'll do whatever you need to feel better."

Jaebum has to grin. It will take more than a twisted ankle to get Jinyoung down.

Once he helps Jinyoung over to the queen-sized bed near the center of the room, Jaebum settles in next to him, smoothing his hand over what might be the softest bedsheets he's ever felt. "Nice," he comments.

"Egyptian cotton," Jinyoung says, yawning as he relaxes back against the pillows already propped up against the headboard. 

Sometimes Jaebum wonders if Jackson wasn't right all along about Omega Chi not being a real frat.

He quickly logs onto his laptop, then starts the DVD he'd slipped into it earlier. “I thought you might want to watch this,” he says as the menu loads, revealing that it's the Robert Redford version of The Great Gatsby. Jinyoung makes a quiet, stunned sound, and Jaebum grins when he glances sideways and finds Jinyoung staring at the screen. “Unless you want to watch something else.”

“No, this is good,” Jinyoung says firmly. Jaebum scoots closer to him, balancing his laptop on his thighs, and Jinyoung leans against his side.

“So I can see better,” he says serenely. Jaebum snorts but drapes his arm over Jinyoung’s shoulders anyway, smiling to himself when Jinyoung rests his head against Jaebum’s shoulder and nestles even closer. It’s been a while since Jaebum has just cuddled with someone in bed like this. 

For some reason his mind goes straight to Jackson and his insistence that cuddling is all he and Mark ever do in their megabed. If it weren’t so obvious that they weren’t sleeping together yet, Jaebum wouldn’t believe them. He honestly has no idea how Mark and Jackson have made it four months without boning. Or, knowing them, how they made it four hours. If Jaebum and Jinyoung were the ones sharing a bed, Jinyoung warm and pliant and waiting against him every night—

He wrenches his thoughts away from that idea. “You have your own room here?” he asks quickly, realizing a beat too late that that might not be the safest thing to ask right now.

“Yeah, but it’s not as nice as the upperclassmen suites.”

Jaebum looks pointedly around the room, taking in the four-poster bed and the giant television, not to mention the half-open door on the other side of the room, which Jaebum can see leads to a private bathroom. “Yeah, you’re really suffering,” he says dryly.

Jinyoung grins. "What about you? Who are you sharing a room with?"

"Hoseok."

"Try not to compare us too much," Jinyoung says solemnly. “It’s not fair to him.”

"He's neater than you," Jaebum points out. 

"Nobody's perfect," Jinyoung says easily, then holds up his hand to motion for silence as the opening credits end and the movie begins.

Hoseok isn’t, either, Jaebum doesn’t say; Jaebum may not missing tripping over Jinyoung’s scattered belongings, but he does miss hearing the familiar pattern of Jinyoung’s breathing as he sleeps and waking up to Jinyoung’s smile.

He’s in so far over his head, Jaebum realizes yet again, casting Jinyoung a sideways glance.

 

 

 

 

 

By the time the movie ends, Jaebum’s too comfortable to move. Jinyoung seems to feel the same way, judging by how he cuddles closer to Jaebum as the credits roll rather than pulling away.

It leads to Jaebum talking about how he’d direct an adaptation of The Great Gatsby, Jinyoung listening with a focused gaze and occasional questions. If every conversation they had was an innuendo-laden sparring of wits they might have been done with each other months ago, but Jaebum can talk to Jinyoung just like this, too, about their interests or their lives or their thoughts. Jinyoung makes a good 2 a.m. listener, he's long since discovered. 

Before long even that conversation winds down, and they lapse into silence for a little while. "It sucks that you got hurt when we just got here," Jaebum remarks at last.

"I'll live," Jinyoung says quietly. He’s toying with Jaebum’s hand, though Jaebum isn’t entirely sure Jinyoung even realizes he’s doing it. Jaebum decides not to point it out, just in case. "I'm still glad I'm here. Playing's not the only thing you can do on the beach, you know.”

“Oh yeah?”

He half expects Jinyoung to say something about reading on the beach, or long walks, or being inspired, but Jinyoung surprises him. “I grew up in Jinhae-gu, in Korea. I don’t remember a lot from when we lived there, I was too young, but we go back every summer and stay with my dad’s family.”

“It’s still home?” Jaebum fills in for him.

“Yeah.” Jinyoung sighs. “I don’t know where I want to live after I graduate yet, but I want to be near the ocean.”

Jaebum always associates Jinyoung with Massachusetts, where he lives now, with scarves and snow and the way he teases Jaebum about his thin Southern blood and sensitivity to colder temperatures. This is a side of Jinyoung that he wouldn't have guessed at. He wonders how many other people know this about Jinyoung, and finds himself hoping that he’s the only person Jinyoung’s talked to like this.

As if he’s reading Jaebum’s mind, Jinyoung smiles at him. “I’m glad you came over.”

“Me, too,” Jaebum murmurs.

He doesn't realize how intently he’s studying Jinyoung until their eyes lock. Jinyoung slides infinitesimally closer, until their heads are inches away from each other on the pillow Jinyoung’s been leaning against. "Am I being too handsome again?" Jinyoung teases, though his voice is gentler than it usually is when he’s testing Jaebum.

Jaebum can't stop himself from raising a hand, cupping Jinyoung's cheek and stroking it with his thumb. "Something like that," he says quietly.

“Are you giving in?” Jinyoung asks, his voice so soft, and his curved lips are _right there_. One of Jinyoung’s hands is warm and curled around Jaebum’s side, and Jaebum _wants_.

Jaebum smiles, too, all teeth. “Are you?” he asks, his voice somehow still steady, his gaze trained determinedly on Jinyoung’s.

Jinyoung pauses. “Why don’t we have… I don’t know, a time-out?”

“An intermission?” 

“Yes, an intermission! A way we can each test each other.”

Jaebum tilts his head, considering the idea. "What do you mean, test each other?" If Jinyoung will give them a chance for _anything_ he'll take it, but he knows that he had better be very sure he understands exactly what Jinyoung's suggesting, so that he can try to figure out how Jinyoung will use this to his own benefit in the future.

"Think about it: we’ve been doing this for, what, four or five months?”

“Six,” Jaebum says immediately, even though he knows it’s what Jinyoung wants, confirmation that he remembers everything about their relationship so precisely.

Jinyoung doesn’t smile, but Jaebum can see the flash of triumph in his eyes. “Okay, six months. But what if, whenever one of us gives in…” Jinyoung lets the moment linger, as if to give Jaebum time to contemplate just how that will go, then shrugs, "we realize we don't have chemistry, after all? What if we’ve put in all this time and effort and then it's just like ‘ _oh, that's nice_ ’.”

Jaebum blinks. He’s thought a lot about Jinyoung, and about their game and how it will all end, but he’s never once wondered if it will be anticlimactic. “You really think that’ll happen?”

“It’s not that I _think_ anything,” Jinyoung says innocently. “I’m just saying, maybe we should test it.”

Test it. Jaebum had thought he couldn’t become more aware of how close they are right now, how he can feel light, warm puffs of air from Jinyoung's mouth and how Jinyoung's fingertips have started smoothing small circles into the fabric of Jaebum’s oversized t-shirt. He'd been wrong. 

“How?” he asks warily, his gaze dropping to Jinyoung's mouth just in time to catch it curving up into a knowing smile.

“We could kiss,” Jinyoung says easily. “Why, do you have any other ideas?”

Jaebum has more than a few, but he knows better than to admit to any of them. “Just kissing?” he asks, searching the idea for the complications he knows must lie underneath it. There's always more with Jinyoung.

“Just kissing,” Jinyoung tells him, the picture of honesty and innocence. Jaebum's more sure than ever that the other shoe is about to drop. “We can even make rules. No hands below the waist.”

“What about above the waist?” Jaebum quickly asks. As badly as he wants to have even a part of what he's wanted so much, there's no way he's going to throw himself into anything.

Jinyoung grins, his eyes lit with amusement. “I usually touch people when I kiss them. Doesn’t everyone? Unless they’re tied up, I guess.”

“Have you been reading 50 Shades again?” Jaebum asks, because he’s not going to rise to _that_ bait. Not in any way.

Jinyoung just laughs the question away. "What else?" he drawls, teasing and thoughtful, but his fingertips are drumming lightly against Jaebum's side. Like he's as eager to move, to touch, as Jaebum is, even though he's playing it so cool. “No marks.”

Jaebum nods. That would raise too many questions, so it’s not worth it, no matter how tempting the thought is. "Clothes stay on," he adds. Better to avoid as much temptation as possible, even though it could have served him well—Jaebum has caught Jinyoung staring at his shoulders more than a few times when Jaebum has been shirtless in the dorm.

“I can’t think of anything else, can you?” Jinyoung asks, and smiles when Jaebum shakes his head. “Then I guess we’re set.”

Jaebum shifts closer, his hand slipping around to the back of Jinyoung's head. His thumb brushes against Jinyoung’s pulse point along the way, and he’s gratified to feel it racing as quickly as Jaebum’s own. "Should this count against you?" he teases lightly. "Wanting it so badly you came up with the whole idea?"

"I’m just doing this to help you," Jinyoung assures him, widening his eyes in dramatic surprise. "You looked so desperate."

"You have a response to everything, don't you?" Jaebum murmurs, his gaze dropping to Jinyoung's mouth again, not bothering to raise it again this time.

"Maybe I shouldn't be saying anything," Jinyoung suggests, tightening his grip on Jaebum's side. Jaebum takes the hint and finally, _finally_ closes the distance between them, claiming Jinyoung's lips for the first time.

Jaebum can’t even count the number of times he’s imagined this; can’t entirely believe that it’s happening at last, that he finally knows the perfect pressure of Jinyoung’s mouth against his, that he finally knows what Jinyoung tastes like, and the feel of how soft and plush his full, red lips are against his own. Months of watching and wondering, and Jinyoung more than lives up to every fantasy Jaebum’s ever had, greedily taking everything Jaebum offers but giving back all of it and more.

Jaebum isn’t just making up for six months of temptation and self-denial. He knows there’s no way to tell how long the game will go on, and he’s taking everything he can to fortify himself with in the months—not years, he assures himself; Jinyoung may be evil but he’s not a masochist—to come.

“No chemistry,” Jaebum says hoarsely, more stunned than deadpan, the first time their mouths part.

Jinyoung stares at him. “We should test again, just to-” he begins. 

Jaebum kisses him again before he can even finish his sentence. Given how Jinyoung immediately responds, his hands clutching at Jaebum’s hair, he doesn’t seem to mind the interruption.

This position is going to get uncomfortable fast, Jaebum decides. He breaks away again, pleased to hear Jinyoung's quiet, protesting whine. "Here, let's lie down," he says, voice low, and Jinyoung shivers against him and obeys. "Careful, your ankle-”

"I'm fine, it's fine, just-” Jinyoung pulls him down, Jaebum quickly moving until he's leaning over Jinyoung, and kisses him again, fervently, as Jinyoung's hands sink into his hair.

_Clothes stay on_ , Jaebum reminds himself as his own hands stray along Jinyoung’s sides, listening to Jinyoung’s quiet, approving noise. No matter how badly he wants to toss the rules aside, to strip Jinyoung and map his soft, pliant, warm body with his gaze and hands and mouth he restrains himself to simply slipping his hands under Jinyoung’s shirt.

"You're good on top," Jinyoung teases, his breathless voice laded with enough innuendo that Jaebum wants to thoroughly prove his words.

"Is that how you’d want it?" he asks instead.

Jinyoung hums thoughtfully. “Sometimes,” he says, then smiles that Cheshire cat smile of his again, lust-blown eyes more wicked than ever. “Unless we’re in the mood to switch.” 

In a split second, Jaebum imagines what it would be like to be dominated by Jinyoung in bed; Jinyoung using that way he has of reading Jaebum so easily to bring him pleasure or to see how long he can hold out on him before Jaebum’s willing to beg... 

Just the idea has him kissing Jinyoung again, tightening his grip on Jinyoung’s sides so that he can’t be tempted to stray past the boundaries they’ve devised. He catches himself grinding down against Jinyoung’s thigh, but figures it doesn’t count as a violation of the rules considering that Jinyoung just makes this quiet near-purr of a sound that rocks through Jaebum’s entire body, then rubs up against him, both of them steadily picking up the pace as their kisses get even more intense.

He needs _more_ , is as coherent a thought as Jaebum can manage, everything about this, about Jinyoung, becoming too much for him to keep it together. Too desperate to remember the consequences, he slips his hands down and back, cupping Jinyoung’s sweatpants-clad ass and lifting him higher against Jaebum’s body.

For a few seconds it’s _glory_ , finally knowing the feel of Jinyoung’s perfect, _perfect_ ass in his hands. Then Jinyoung makes a quiet sound of triumph and pulls away, his eyes lit up as he looks at Jaebum, and reality rushes back in all at once. 

“ _Shit_ ,” Jaebum groans, reluctantly snatching his hands away, and makes to roll off him, only for Jinyoung to wind his good leg over both of Jaebum’s to anchor him in place.

“I didn’t say you could go anywhere,” Jinyoung says, his grin somehow managing to get even wider.

“It’s over, isn’t it?” Jaebum reminds him shortly, impossibly hard and shaking with how badly he needs Jinyoung and frustrated that he’s completely blown the whole thing just because he was too impulsive and couldn’t follow _one rule_.

“We didn’t say that, either,” Jinyoung points out. He strokes one hand reassuringly down Jaebum’s back, stopping just above the waistband of his jeans. “Maybe instead you can just do a penalty.”

Jaebum shivers at the feel of Jinyoung sketching small circles with his fingertips over the small of his back. “Let me guess, you get to decide what it’ll be.”

“I’d’ve let you decide if I’d been the one who lost,” Jinyoung says serenely.

It’s fair, Jaebum can agree to that. He just still can’t believe that he didn’t so much give Jinyoung the upper hand as gift-wrap it. “What do you want it to be?” he asks, resigned.

“Hmmmm.” Jinyoung draws the sound out, his smile a mile wide as he tightens the leg still around Jaebum’s, bringing their bodies together again. 

Jaebum lets out a startled groan at the renewed contact, thrusting reflexively down against him before letting out a ragged laugh. “I thought you were thinking about my punishment.”

“Who said I want you to be thinking at all?” Jinyoung returns coyly, and brushes his lips against Jaebum’s before he can reply. Even though he knows better Jaebum sinks into it, deepening the kiss and getting lost in him again. 

He’s just started to hope that Jinyoung’s followed suit when Jinyoung breaks away. “I’ve decided I need you to think about something, after all,” he says. He’s aiming for casual but sounds too stunned for it, and Jaebum can feel Jinyoung’s hand on the back of his neck trembling lightly, clutching at him. Whatever this is, Jaebum realizes, Jinyoung really wants it. “You have to tell me what you’d be doing if we didn’t have any rules.”

“Grabbing your ass.”

“ _Jaebum_.” Jinyoung nips at his collarbone when Jaebum unrepentantly laughs. “You know what I mean. Tell me what we’d be doing right now. In detail.”

Jaebum knows where this is going; Jinyoung hopes that making Jaebum think about his own fantasies, and about how he’s so close to being able to make them happen, will push Jaebum into letting Jinyoung win so that he can have them. And Jaebum’s already tempted. But he’s not so far gone that he doesn’t realize that if he plays this right he might be able to turn the tables on Jinyoung. Dirty talk has never really been Jaebum’s thing, beyond the basics. But if it’s what Jinyoung wants, Jaebum’s sure he can come up with something.

“Right now?” he says, with exaggerated thoughtfulness. He leans down, like he’s going to kiss Jinyoung again, waits until he hears Jinyoung’s quiet intake of breath—then pulls away again and opens his laptop, loading iTunes and grinning as he hears Jinyoung’s disbelieving laugh.

“What are you doing?” Jinyoung asks him, nudging his calf with his good foot.

“I just realized we were missing something, that’s all,” he says. He scrolls through his playlists, then finds the one he needs and presses play.

Jinyoung goes still underneath him when he hears the opening notes of the first song. “Is this…”

“Yeah,” Jaebum confirms, settling back in over him. “The one I made you.”

He smiles. “I really liked that one.”

“I remember,” Jaebum says, swallowing as he remembers that night he’d walked into the dorm room to find Jinyoung burrowed under his blankets, earbuds in, getting off to what Jaebum had immediately known was the playlist he’d made just for him. It’s one of those things they never talk about but Jaebum constantly thinks about.

“Are you sure you want to put it on?” Jinyoung points out now. He’s moving again, small circles against Jaebum—in rhythm with the song, Jaebum notices. “It’s pretty hot. I don’t want you to get carried away again.” For as concerned as he manages to sound, he looks amused—and aroused, haze and laughter in his eyes. It’s a look Jaebum could get addicted to seeing.

But he can’t think that way right now, not when it’s his move. “I guess I’d better do something like-” Jaebum threads his fingers through Jinyoung’s, then pins their entwined hands over Jinyoung’s head, smiling at the way Jinyoung stares up at him. “You like that?”

“Is it part of what you’d be doing?” Jinyoung returns, because he’s never made anything easy for Jaebum. Of course he won’t start now.

“It could be,” Jaebum says, his smile spreading into a full-on grin. “I’m flexible.”

“How about you tell me more about _that_?”

Jaebum hums thoughtfully, starting his hips in an easy rhythm against Jinyoung’s. If he can just keep his head, no matter how good Jinyoung feels or tastes or looks, he can still win this round. “I guess it all depends,” he says, trying to buy himself time. “I have a few options, if I’m on top.”

“Yeah, you do,” Jinyoung all but purrs.

“I could be fucking you,” he says easily, like he hasn’t been consumed by the idea basically since they day they met. Jaebum doesn’t want to be just another KT to Jinyoung, but he has to admit that when it comes to Jinyoung’s ass, he’s no different than the rest. “Or sucking you off.” He’d like that, too, letting Jinyoung just use his mouth and listening to him fall apart. “Or you could ride me.” He tugs lightly at Jinyoung’s earlobe with his teeth, grins when he hears the sound Jinyoung makes at that. He’s always liked Jinyoung’s ears. He likes everything cute about Jinyoung.

“Is that what you want?” Jinyoung asks, his words ending on a gasp. His hands slide perilously low, and Jaebum grabs them and pins them over his head again. 

“Careful,” he says, smiling when Jinyoung whimpers. “Unless you want me to punish you.”

Jinyoung manages a rough approximation of a laugh. “How would you do that?”

“I’m not that easy,” Jaebum chides.

“But what do you want?” Jinyoung whispers in his ear.

Honestly, Jaebum thinks, brain fogging over, he doesn’t know anymore. He wants anything, everything; to keep Jinyoung in this bed until they’re too exhausted for more—and to wake up with him in the morning and bring him breakfast and have everyone know Jinyoung’s his.

He wants Jinyoung, he realizes. Pure and simple. Anything and everything, as long as it’s with Jinyoung. And he wants to be sure that Jinyoung feels the same way; that this is more than just a game to him, too.

But for now he has a round to win, and he’s so close, he knows he is. He takes Jinyoung’s mouth again, testing him as much as claiming him; Jinyoung is the first to slip away, just gasping against Jaebum’s mouth. Jaebum smiles in satisfaction before kissing his way along Jinyoung’s jawline.

“I’d do whatever _you_ want,” Jaebum murmurs in his ear, his voice as on edge as his body, and feels the tremor that goes through Jinyoung at his words. “All you’d have to do is ask, and you could have anything-”

“Can’t—use my own move against me-” Jinyoung struggles to protest.

Jaebum laughs, thick and low. “I’m just being generous.” He can afford to be. He’s so close now, he can do this, he just has to push a little harder… “What would you want, Jinyoung?” Jinyoung is moving so fast now, sloppy, desperate. Next time, Jaebum thinks, he wants to see his face when he’s like this. “For me to fuck you until you can’t even think? You want to walk out of here tomorrow and have everyone know that it’s done, that we're-”

Jinyoung cries out, his body jerking upward one more time before going stiff and still against him, his hands still clutching Jaebum’s tightly. Stunned, Jaebum realizes what’s happening and his own hips move even faster, startling quiet gasps out of Jinyoung as he helps him ride it out. Jaebum has heard these noises before, but he likes it better here, so close that Jaebum can feel every moan or shaky exhale as well as hear them. They’re already looping in his head, hotter than any playlist he could ever put together.

“Just—let me-” Jinyoung, his eyes heavy-lidded and glazed, lets one hand trail down Jaebum’s body, until Jaebum intercepts it and puts both hands over Jinyoung’s head again.

“No hands, remember?” he says, his smile all teeth, and Jinyoung moans. Jaebum kisses him again—could kiss him forever, really, or so he thinks until he bows his head, body braced as his orgasm hits, Jinyoung whispering encouragement in his ear as Jaebum shudders through it.

Jaebum rolls off with a groan, sprawling on his back and staring blankly up at the ceiling. And that was fully clothed, he thinks with what little remains of his coherence. That was with no touching below the waist. 

Actual sex with Jinyoung might kill him.

He hears Jinyoung’s sleepy laugh from off to the side, and after a few seconds Jinyoung closes the distance between them again, curling against Jaebum’s side and resting his head on his shoulder. Like earlier, except this time Jaebum’s body is warm and humming, not truly sated but definitely better than he’s felt in a while.

“So I guess that’s it-” Jinyoung begins at last. Jaebum impulsively tips Jinyoung’s face up before he can finish, getting a quick glimpse of his wide-eyed stare just before Jaebum kisses him again; not as heated now but thorough, slow, giving Jinyoung—giving both of them, because there’s no way he can make any move anymore that doesn’t rebound back onto himself—a taste of what they could have if one of them were to call off the game now.

“Intermission over?” Jaebum asks hoarsely when he pulls away.

“Yeah.” Jinyoung wets his lips, his eyes full of wonder as he stares up at Jaebum. 

For once Jaebum thinks he’s won a round outright, but he should’ve known Jinyoung wasn’t out yet. 

Jaebum’s breathing has just started to even out again when Jinyoung strokes one hand up his chest, describing lazy circles over Jaebum’s heart. “Do you want to stay?” Jinyoung murmurs.

Jaebum lets himself imagine it again—waking up to Jinyoung’s smile, letting Jinyoung coax him into a shared shower. But there’s no way Jaebum would be able to keep the game going if he does. Not after what they’ve just done. And judging how intensely Jinyoung’s eyes are focused on him, he knows it.

“I should get back,” he says instead, sitting up. The moment broken, all at once he becomes aware of his sticky briefs, the way his shirt is clinging to his back with sweat. He’s going to need a shower when he gets to his room—alone, unfortunately. “Do you need me to help you with anything before I go?”

Jinyoung sits up, too, his gaze glittering with trouble. “Well, I might need help getting my pants off…”

Jaebum can picture that all too well; Jinyoung bent over the mattress, Jaebum kissing his way down his spine until he reaches his waist, and then-

“You wish,” he scoffs quickly, and Jinyoung laughs. 

As it turns out, Jinyoung doesn’t need his help for that at all. Jaebum carefully keeps his eyes focused only on Jinyoung’s face as the mattress rustles and then Jinyoung’s sweatpants hit the carpet. Jaebum double checks to make sure the crutch—one with Omega Chi’s name and symbols engraved on it, which makes him wonder if they have customized first aid kits stashed around the house, too—is propped up close enough to the bed as Jinyoung lies back down.

“What are you doing tomorrow?” Jaebum asks.

Jinyoung smiles, his eyes just barely opening. “Wonpil said he’ll take me to the beach,” he says, his voice already slurred with imminent sleep. “He’s nice.”

Jaebum scowls. He doesn’t know if Jinyoung said that to mess with him or not, but either way, it’s working. “Tell him I’ll take you,” he says.

“Okay.” Jinyoung yawns, and then his eyes flutter open and he gives Jaebum a warm, slow smile, suddenly the human incarnation of everything inviting. “Are you sure you’re not staying?”

It might be the hardest thing Jaebum’s ever done, saying no to the overwhelming temptation to climb back into bed and claim Jinyoung once and for all, but Jaebum takes one step back, then another. He can’t lose now; not when it’s finally sinking in that this isn’t a game for him anymore, if it ever really was. Not until he figures out if Jinyoung does, or can, feel the same way.  



End file.
